English is not my firet language so im sorry if i do not explain myself clearly but i Will try
was Reading about the Sun Yesterday and read that that yesterday The Sun could be observed looking in the West-South-West direction
My question is what does that mean that the sun could be observed in the West South West direction? Does that mean that the sun rose from the West or that it rose from the east and moved towards the West?
In: Planetary Science
If Earth were “straight up and down”, with the north pole “upward”, the south pole “downward” and the equator pointed straight at the Sun, then the Sun would rise due east, go straight overhead and set in the west. (Note – it’s much more accurate to think of the Sun as stationary and Earth rotating toward the east, but even astronomers often think of Earth as stationary with the “celestial sphere” turning around us; it’s just easier.)
But Earth isn’t straight up and down; we’re tilted quite a bit. We’re 23 degrees off the “vertical”. I’m in the north half of the Earth, so I get my summer when the north half is tilted toward the Sun and my winter when the north half is tilted away from the sun. Even at the equator, the sunrise varies from 23 degrees north of east, to 23 degrees south of east, during the year. (There are two days, called equinoxes, where at the equator it rises exactly east; for half the year it rises on the north side, for the other half it swings south.)
During the day the sun “arcs” through the sky overhead; it’s not a straight line. Where I am, the sun currently rises to the northeast, then it swings through east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and it will set to the northwest.
If you go to www.suncalc.org you can see a chart for your location that will show you how the sun will move across the sky from your perspective, today or on any other day.
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